Youngkin to Propose Statewide Ban on ‘Sanctuary Cities’ in Virginia

Virginia Gov Glenn Youngkin

Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin is expected to introduce a budget proposal on Thursday that would include a ban on “sanctuary cities,” and state funding for cities that do not comply with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Mayors of self-proclaimed “sanctuary cities” across the United States have already teased that they will not comply with the incoming Trump administration’s efforts to deport massive amounts of illegal immigrants.

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Tennessee State Rep. Gillespie Files Bills to Restrict Bail for Gun Crimes, Require Judges to Consider Juvenile Records

State Rep John Gillespie

Tennessee State Representative John Gillespie (R-Memphis) two bills this week that would tighten Tennessee’s bail laws, requiring judges to consider juvenile records and pretrial reports when considering whether a minor defendant is eligible for release, and changing the standards for bail to automatically preclude those accused of crimes involving firearms, serious injury, or death.

Gillespie filed HB 33 on Wednesday, would change Tennessee law to establish “a presumption that a defendant should not be released” from jail should the circumstances of their charges include, “the use or display of a firearm,” or if their alleged crimes “resulted in the serious bodily injury or death of the victim.”

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Zuckerberg’s Meta Gave $1 Million To Trump’s Inaugural Fund

Mark Zuckerberg

Meta donated $1 million to President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural fund, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

The donation comes amid a thaw in relations between Trump and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, with Zuckerberg paying a visit to Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago club in Florida two weeks ago, according to The WSJ. Zuckerberg and Meta did not donate to Trump’s inaugural fund in 2017 or to President Biden’s fund in 2021.

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Woman Who Detransitioned Says Covenant School Killer’s Extensive Mental Health Treatment a ‘Risk Factor for Transition’

Elle Palmer

Elle Palmer, who identified as a transgender man through most of her teen years before detransitioning to her biological, female gender, that early experiences with mental health treatments are “absolutely” a “risk factor” for a desire to transition genders later in life.

In an interview conducted after Palmer traveled to Washington, D.C. to support Tennessee’s law banning transgender treatments for minors, she told The Star that she had a psychiatrist by time she was 11, and said, “I absolutely think it’s a risk factor for transition.”

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‘Unacceptable Safety Risk’: Ban on Puberty Blockers Extended Indefinitely in the U.K.

GOV.UK Existing emergency measures banning the sale and supply of puberty-suppressing hormones will be made indefinite, following official advice from medical experts. The Commission on Human Medicines (CHM) has provided independent expert advice that there is currently an unacceptable safety risk in the continued prescription of puberty blockers to children. It recommends indefinite restrictions while work is done to ensure the safety of children and young people. The NHS stopped the routine prescription of puberty blocker treatments to under 18s in March 2024, following the Cass Review into gender identity services. READ THE FULL STORY

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FBI Had Over a Dozen Confidential Informants at Capitol on Jan. 6, I.G. Report Confirms

January 06 2021

More than a dozen FBI informants entered restricted areas in and around the Capitol on Jan. 6 ,2021, according to a Department of Justice investigator general (IG) report published on Thursday.

The DOJ’s oversight report that examined the FBI’s intelligence collection efforts preceding January 6th found that the FBI had 26 informants in Washington, D.C., to report on “domestic terrorism subjects” to the Bureau.

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Biden Oversaw Largest Immigration Surge in U.S. History, Data Shows

Illegal Immigrants

President Joe Biden oversaw the highest level of net migration in United States history, underlining how severe the border crisis became during his tenure in the White House.

The migrant surge experienced in the past few years surpassed even the great immigration booms of the 1800s and early 1900s, according to The New York Times analysis of border data. Annual net migration, which is the sum of individuals who enter the U.S. subtracted by the number of people who leave, averaged about 2.4 million from 2021 to 2023 — resulting in net migration that is likely to surpass eight million people during the Biden administration.

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Commentary: Trump Vows to Slash Government Bureaucracy as Public Trust in Government Craters

Donald Trump

President-elect Donald Trump just announced his sweeping plan to slash the size of the federal government through a new government agency run by businessmen Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.

The temporary agency, which Trump has named the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), will be tasked with slashing government bureaucracy, ending nonsensical regulations, and cutting wasteful expenditures, initiatives the American people appear all too happy to see put into action.

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Virginia Man Faces Prison for Allegedly Sending Bitcoin to ISIS Members in Syria Through Turkish Intermediary

Mohammed Chhipa

The trial began this week for Virginia man Mohammed Chhipa, who prosecutors say immigrated to the United States from India but is now a naturalized citizen who has lived in Virginia since 2008 and faces charges related to the alleged transfer of Bitcoin to a Syrian member of the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group through an intermediary in Turkey.

Prosecutors said on Tuesday that Chhipa converted over $74,000 into Bitcoin that was then transferred to ISIS members in Syria, according to Fox 5 DC, with the outlet reporting an undercover FBI agent testifying conversations about Chhipa sending the money happened alongside others about suicide bombings.

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Michigan Parents Opting to Keep Children Out of Child Care as Closures Continue

Michigan is one of the most-expensive states in the nation for child care, leading some to label it a “crisis” for parents, who are increasingly choosing to opt out of it.

A new report from the Committee for Economic Development found there are 23% fewer children in paid child care throughout the state, decreasing from 400,807 in 2019 to 306,595 in 2022. It is unlikely that just one factor is contributing to those decreases.

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Republican Senators Say They Will Not Oppose Trump’s January 6 Pardons

January 6

Most Republican members of the United States Senate said they will not oppose President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to pardon most, if not all, of the January 6th protesters.

According to The Hill, several Republicans in the Senate cited Joe Biden’s recent pardon of his son Hunter as reasoning, with Democrats being forced into a corner of being called hypocrites following Biden’s controversial decision.

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Report: Minnesota DHS Has Not Tried to Recover More than $40 Million in Overpayments

Minnesota Money

A new report from the Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA) found that the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) has not tried to recover over $40 million in overpayments that went to healthcare providers under the state’s Medical Assistance program.

In Minnesota, DHS is responsible for administering several healthcare programs including Medical Assistance (MA), the state’s Medicaid program.

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‘Unacceptable Safety Risk’: Major European Country Bans Puberty Blockers for Minors

Wes Streeting

The United Kingdom (UK) indefinitely banned the use of puberty-blocking drugs for minors Wednesday after recommendations from experts that warned of an “unacceptable safety risk.”

The ban affects the sale and supply of the drugs to all citizens under 18 following an independent review by the Commission on Human Medicines, according to a press release from the British government. The ban will be reviewed in 2027.

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